[Aptitude-devel] Bug#1057978: Almost removed most of my system

[Jeremy Davis]

(Random Debian user who has used unstable/Sid - sharing my 2c)

Hi Dan,

On 11/12/23 20:40, Tianyu Chen wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Dec 2023 15:22:24 +0800 Dan Jacobson <jidanni at jidanni.org> wrote:
>> Today I out of habit hit RET to the following.
>> It removed much of my system.
>> https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/comments/alytbc/comment/kcv98ks/
>> Next time I'll be more careful and not trust it.
>> I didn't realize how long the list was when I hit RET.
>> Maybe there should be a second question if the removal list is longer
> than 20 packages.
> 
> You're using unstable, so you should be more careful with your actions,
> especially full-upgrade. If I guessed it right, the reason caused this is
> the ongoing transition of python3.12.
> 

Further to Tianyu's note re running unstable, I highly recommend NEVER 
blindly doing a 'full-upgrade' when running Sid!

This[1] seems like a pretty solid workflow giving you the least chance 
of issues.

[1] https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=633248#p633248

I ran Sid for a few years myself and there were a number of times that I 
had to pin specific packages to stop breakages (while upgrading as much 
as I could). Removal of important packages/tools/dependencies that would 
lead to a broken state weren't uncommon in my experience.

Whilst I suspect that you could create an apt hook to do what you want 
(i.e. fail/warn if more than x packages are being removed), that still 
won't avoid potential issues. It's not uncommon for packages and their 
dependencies to uploaded at different times - which will cause issues, 
e.g.[2].

[2] https://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=153857

If you want to be able to run updates blindly without worrying about 
breakages, just use stable. Issues are still possible, just much less 
likely; and when they do occur, almost always less severe (tend to be 
annoying bugs, rather than show stoppers).

I moved back to stable during Bookworm because the cost/benefit of 
running Sid just didn't add up for me (I didn't really need all the 
newer packages, just a few - that I now update via other methods).

If you want to have bleeding edge packages, use Sid - but very 
carefully! If you're not attached to Debian, then a "proper" rolling 
release - that is rolling by design (e.g. Arch) might be a better option 
for you?

> Also, this mail list is used for tracking aptitude bugs, not for user
> support.

Apologies on the noise...

Cheers,
Jeremy
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